Qualifier Roberto Carballes Baena defeated Albert Ramos in a three set tilt 6-3 4-6 6-4 to capture his maiden ATP title on the clay of Quito, Ecuador. Carballes Baena defeated Federico Gaio, Paolo Lorenzi, Nicolas Jarry, and Andrej Martin after qualifying, dropping sets in his final three matches but prevailing each time.

His countryman Ramos, the more experienced of the finalists, defeated Roberto Quiroz, Gerald Melzer, and Thiago Monteiro, his win over Monteiro coming in three sets.

Jarry and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo, both hailing from Chile, defeated Austin Krajicek and Jackson Withrow in the doubles final.

Lucas Pouille, who captured a career high three ATP titles in 2017, captured his first of 2018, 7-6 6-4 over countryman Richard Gasquet. Pouille benefited from a retirement in the semifinals when trailing against Jo-Wilfried Tsonga, as Tsonga injured his knee up a set and 5-5 in set 2. Carlos Taberner and Benoit Paire both lost to Pouille in straight sets.

Gasquet showed good form yet again on home courts, he beat Daniil Medvedev, Pierre-Hugues Herbert, Damir Dzumhur and David Goffin. The wins over Herbert and Goffin coming in three sets.

British brothers Ken and Neal Skupski defeated Hugo Nys and Ben Mclachlan in the doubles final.

Both Mirza Basic and Marius Copil had a shot at their maiden ATP title, and Basic came out ahead. The Bosnian edged Copil 7-6 6-7 6-4 in the final, after upsetting both Philipp Kohlschreiber and Stan Wawrinka to reach the final. Basic, a qualifier, also defeated Florian Mayer and Max Marterer in the main draw. Basic was on the ropes in his opening round qualifying match against local player Alexander Lazov, and dropped a set against Marterer as well, but improved throughout the entirety of the week. He was rock solid on serve against Wawrinka and finally got the upper hand.

Copil defeated Robin Haase, Blaz Kavcic, Gilles Muller, and Jozef Kovalik to reach the final, not dropping a set in those four victories.

Deep French Field Including Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga Feature at ATP MontpellierSteen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

The first of the numerous ATP tournaments in France, Montpellier is a 250 on indoor hard courts. Here is your full preview, with predictions.

Top Half:

David Goffin comes off success in Davis Cup and will face Gilles Simon in the opening round, presuming Simon beats a qualifier. I’ll go with Simon in an upset, given home court advantage, Goffin’s likely fatigue, and Simon’s good form to start the year. David Ferrer is another veteran in good form, he’ll face Karen Khachanov, Ricardas Berankis/Julien Benneteau will follow. Simon over Ferrer is my pick in the quarters.

Richard Gasquet played well in Davis Cup, he has a tough opening match against Daniil Medvedev, with Pierre-Hugues Herbert/qualifier to follow. Gasquet is still my pick ot reach the quarters, opposite Damir Dzumhur. Dzumhur will face Calvin Hemery/Ruben Bemelmans in the second round.

Lucas Pouille struggled to start the season, he should beat a qualifier, but his countryman Benoit Paire should be tricky in the quarters. Paire opens with Mischa Zverev, John Millman/Yuichi Sugita will follow. Paire is my pick over Pouille in the quarters given the current form of both players.

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga has a great shot in his section of the draw, Nicolas Mahut/Dustin Brown will be his first opponent, Andrey Rublev should be his quarterfinal opponent. Rublev opens with Guillermo Garcia-Lopez, Stefanos Tsitsipas/Jeremy Chardy will follow. Tsitsipas could make a run, but Rublev seems to be better at this point in time. Tsonga is my pick to reach the semis.

Despite falling short in the Davis Cup final as a team, David Goffin had a great finish to 2017, as he won titles in Shenzhen and Tokyo, reached the semifinals in Basel, and then the final in the ATP World Tour Finals in London. After the US Open he scored wins over Richard Gasquet, Adrian Mannarino, Jack Sock, Dominic Thiem, Rafael Nadal, and Roger Federer. In the Davis Cup final he defeated Lucas Pouille and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga but it still wasn’t enough.

France Captures Davis Cup

France finally won the Davis Cup, after losing a multitude of finals Tsonga and Pouille defeated Steve Darcis twice, and Gasquet and Pierre-Hugues Herbert defeated Ruben Bemelmans and Joris De Loore in what turned out to be the critical doubles rubber. Pouille defeated his teammate Tsonga in the Vienna 500 final, while Tsonga won Antwerp.

Breakthrough for Sock

Jack Sock won the biggest title of his career at the Paris Masters, he won over a weakened field with wins over Kyle Edmund, Pouille, Fernando Verdasco, Julien Benneteau, and Filip Krajinovic. He qualified for the World Tour Finals by virtue of that victory and reached the semifinals after going 2-1 with wins over Alexander Zverev and Marin Cilic.

Dimitrov and Del Potro Looking Strong Heading Into 2018

Grigor Dimitrov finished the year with 49 wins and 4 titles as he reached the final in Stockholm, and the final at the World Tour Finals in London, beating Pablo Carreno Busta, Goffin twice, Dominic Thiem, and Sock.

Juan Martin Del Potro reached the semis in Shanghai, the final in Basel, took a title in Stockholm, and finished the year with a quarterfinal in Paris.

Nadal and Federer Finish 1-2

Damir Dzumhur has 2 ATP titles to end the year as he won in both St. Petersburg and Moscow, while Hyeon Chung won the Next-Gen finals over Andrey Rublev. Nadal won Beijing and lost the final in Shanghai, shutting down his season at the World Tour Finals due to injury concerns but still finishing year end world #1. Federer won Shanghai and Basel to finish year end #2.

It’s been an exciting few days leading up to today’s semifinal matches on the men’s side of the Citi Open. Two of the semifinalists Kevin Anderson, and Jack Sock have to be the most excited, as they have found some of their best form to setup a semifinal clash, coming from an underdog position at the beginning of the week. Despite an easy win over Malek Jaziri in his opening match, Anderson has had to grind it out in his last two victories. Against Dominic Thiem he got an early break, rode out a long rain delay, then held his mettle to take the first set and split tiebreaks the rest of the way, winning in three sets despite failing to convert break point, and a match point chance in the second set. Thiem was at a matchup disadvantage against Anderson, and the top seed never seemed confident, even with his groundstrokes as he was up breaks twice in the third set, and lost both of them, including when he was serving for the match. He even had a match point in tiebreak, but Anderson would save it, and convert his third match point overall to reach the quarters. Thiem dialed his serve up on key points, but it was Anderson playing as the aggressor in the 6-3 6-7 7-6 victory.

Against surprise quarterfinalist Yuki Bhambri, a qualifier, Anderson again notched more than 20 aces, winning more than 80% of his first serve points and breaking Bhambri in the only two chances he got to win 6-4 4-6 6-3. Anderson could have been broken to open the first set, and was broken to open up what was a very sloppy second set for him, but his tenacity and class shown through against the qualifier who had three set wins against both defending champion Gael Monfils, and Guido Pella (who took out serve and volleyer Mischa Zverev) earlier in the week. Bhambri had ridden out the inconsistent, and shaky performance from Monfils, but Anderson didn’t let him do the same in the quarterfinals, playing his best in the third set when it mattered most.

Jack Sock is leading the ATP tour in hard court match wins and he hasn’t dropped a set this week after a disappointing showing in Atlanta. Sock heads into his semifinal with Anderson having beaten young gun Jared Donaldson and big gun Milos Raonic back to back. Donaldson was plainly outclassed 7-6 6-2, while Raonic, who had won a pair of chippy straight set matches over Nicolas Mahut and Marcos Baghdatis where his served saved him, but he was clearly a bit out of form, couldn’t bail himself out on serve this time. Sock won 80% of his first serve points in the 7-5 6-4 victory that took just an hour and a half over Raonic.

Jack Sock, 2017 Citi Open, (Photo: Tennis Atlantic)

Raonic could have ran away with the first set up a break, but Sock didn’t lose confidence and got back into things before snatching it. In the second set Raonic had a break point chance at 2-3 that he didn’t take, not long after that Sock just needed a break and a hold to get the win in an hour and a half. Given he just beat a big server in Raonic, Sock should have a good idea of how to upend Anderson as well.

The other semifinal pits Kei Nishikori vs. Alexander Zverev in a clash that should garner worldwide attention. Nishikori has played two bad sets this week, one against Donald Young, the other in the quarterfinals against young gun Tommy Paul, but in both those wins he’s shown why he’s been a top 10 mainstay for so long. Playing in an ATP quarterfinal for the second time in as many weeks, Paul, who had upset both Lucas Pouille in a shocker, and Gilles Muller, who beat him in Atlanta, to reach this stage, came out on fire, and honestly played a very good match.

Paul came out of the gate breaking the Nishikori serve, then saved four break points on his own serve to go up 5-2, and eventually take the set. Paul could have went up a set and a break, but it was Nishikori who saved three break points to open the second set. Paul would go up 6-3 5-3, and he had a match point on his return, but Nishikori found that extra gear to get to 5-5 in the second. Nishikori faced two more match points in the second set tiebreak, but saved both before taking it 10-8. At this point Paul’s form began to dip as he hit the wall physically. Nishikori saved two break points and then broke. He maintained pressure on Paul and went up 5-3 before serving out a 3-6 7-6 6-4 win.

Prior to the quarterfinal the Japanese #1 beat Juan Martin Del Potro 7-5 6-4, as Del Potro looked a bit hampered with a minor injury. He still won plenty of points against Kei but he lost 40% of his own service points, a stat that simply will not result in wins for a player like Del Potro, who had previously dominated Lukas Lacko in straights.

Now working with Juan Carlos Ferrero, Alexander Zverev improved markedly in his last two matches after being flummoxed often in a three set win over Jordan Thompson in his opening match. The young Aussie kept coming forward, and although he lacked the class at the net when needed, he still managed to take the first set, and force a third set tiebreak. Zverev dialed up his serve to get out of jail in that one, and then edged both Tennys Sandgren and Daniil Medvedev as the favorite. Sandgren had beaten an unconfident Nick Kyrgios in one of the biggest wins of his career previously in the tournament but he struggled with his second serve, and on return against Zverev.

Medvedev just looked gassed in the quarterfinals against Zverev. The Russian hit more double faults than aces, and won just six games as his forehand betrayed him, despite wins over Steve Johnson and Grigor Dimitrov earlier in the week. Medvedev dug deep to come back from a set and a break down to defeat Johnson in a third set tiebreak, and then shocked Dimitrov, who was sloppy on return games.

Zverev is a slight favorite against Nishikori, and that feels right given their match performance this week, and the fact Zverev probably has more weapons if he can move his feet well enough to get into position to use them.

The Men’s doubles have played true to seeding, Kontinen/Peers will face Murray/Soares, while the Bryan Brothers take on Kubot/Melo, looking for two titles on American hard courts, in two weeks. Both doubles semifinals should be very high quality.

Pouille and Muller Claim Second ATP Titles of the SeasonSteen Kirby, Tennis Atlantic

ATP Stuttgart

A great comeback for Frenchman Lucas Pouille secured his second ATP title of the season, the first final of the 2017 grass court season was decided 4-6 7-6 6-4, as Pouille was pushed to the limit in the second set tiebreak, and after taking that, battled hard in the third to break Lopez’s effective grass court serve and volley and hold his own serve to secure the title. Pouille barely got out of his opening match, winning close second and third set tiebreaks and saving a match point to defeat J.L. Struff, he went on to defeat Philipp Kohlschreiber and Benoit Paire in close matches, showing his mental toughness this week.

Lopez chip and charge helped him reach his first tour final of the season, the Spaniard, happy to be on grass, got past Gilles Simon, Jeremy Chardy, Tomas Berdych, and Mischa Zverev, all of those matches going three sets except for his contest against Simon as the Mercedes Cup featured a lot of close matches this week.

Jamie Murray and Bruno Soares defeated Oliver Marach and Mate Pavic to take the doubles title.

ATP Rosmalen

34 year old Gilles Muller continued his best season on tour, winning a second title this year 7-6 7-6 in narrow fashion over fellow big server Ivo Karlovic at the Ricoh Open. Muller won tiebreaks this week against Andreas Seppi and Alexander Zverev, also winning in three sets against Aljaz Bedene to reach the final as his serve and volley game was lethal on grass.

Karlovic, 38, reached his first final this season, the veteran upset Marin Cilic in three sets in the semifinals, Daniil Medvedev and Stefan Kozlov were his other victims on the week, as both players will be difficult early round opponents at Wimbledon.

Lukasz Kubot and Marcelo Melo continued the trend of veteran success in Rosmalen as they defeated Raven Klaasen and Rajeev Ram.

The third seed was put under pressure early and eventually dropped serve at 2-2 in the first set. However, Halep found some rhythm and immediately broke Vinci back. Another break of serve from the Romanian was enough to seal the first set 6-3.

Set two stayed mostly on serve in the early goings, but Vinci took control of the match with a break at 3-2. The Italian’s slice backhand was giving Halep troubles and she was also hitting her forehand very well. Another break followed and Vinci took the set 6-2 to take us to a decider.

The momentum was behind the world number 34 who broke to take the lead in the third set. It looked like another upset was on the cards in the women’s draw, but Halep fought back to level the score when Vinci served for the match. It was a complete momentum shift as a now rejuvenated Halep ran away with the tiebreaker 7-2.

“Her game is not easy to play.” Halep said of Vinci post match.

“Her slices are very difficult to return. She was hitting pretty strong also with the forehand today, serve, everything. She played unbelievable.”

“Yeah, I was close to lose the match. But I stayed strong. I stayed focused. I didn’t give up. That makes this match much more like bigger for me. It means a lot.”

Halep is the defending champion of a tournament that has recently been very kind to the Romanians. Sorana Cirstea defeated Cici Bellis in straight sets earlier in the day whilst Irina Begu needed three sets to get past Johanna Larsson. That makes it three Romanian women into the third round of Madrid. So why is it that Romanians do well here?

“Maybe because Mr. Tiriac is the owner and makes everything like home,” Halep said with a smile.

“In my opinion, the altitude I think helps us. The fact that we are many Romanians here, also boys, coaches, so we are many. We feel relaxed, in my opinion.”

“Here for me is special because I won last year. I played one final before. I feel pretty good on this court. I played my best tennis last year at this tournament. I’m trying just to repeat it. It’s not going to be easy.”

“But I have a lot of support at this tournament. I want to thank to everyone for this.”

Murray marches into the second round
Andy Murray is through to the third round of the Mutua Madrid Open after a straight sets victory over Marius Copil on Manolo Santana stadium.

The world number one was tested by his Romanian opponent in the early stages, but ultimately pulled through 6-4, 6-3 to seal his passage into the round of 16.

It was Murray who carved out the first break point opportunities in Copil’s opening service game, but the Romanian managed to save them and the first set stayed on serve until the very end where Murray finally broke.

Despite recent issues with injury and some early defeats, Murray looked comfortable on serve and did not concede a single break point during the match. The Brit managed to break Copil at 3-2 in the second set and comfortably saw out the match to get his Madrid title quest underway.

“I found it difficult to start” Murray said post match.

“I haven’t practiced out there. Well, we practiced out there for 25 minutes before the match, this morning at like 11:00. That had been it.”

“It was very lively out there. It was probably the hottest it’s been since we’ve been here. Found it a bit difficult at the beginning to adjust to the conditions. Also never played him before. He serves big, comes forward a bit, uses dropshots. It was tricky.”

“But when I started to control the points more towards the end of the first set and second set, you know, I was hitting the ball pretty clean, creating a few chances. I didn’t give him any opportunities.”

“It was good for the first match.”Embed from Getty ImagesLucas Pouille out
Lucas Pouille became the third seed to be eliminated from the Mutua Madrid Open after a tough three set defeat to Pierre Hughes-Herbert.

Despite suffering with sickness over the weekend that forced the 13th seed to miss doubles, Pouille took to court and contested a tight three set match with his compatriot which he eventually lost 7-6(5), (4)6-7, 6-4.

The first set was a high quality affair with both men serving well. Each player shared one break point opportunity, but neither was converted and the set fittingly went into a tiebreak. Herbert seized the initiative early by earning two mini breaks. Pouille was able to get one back, but the set ended up going to the qualifier 7-5 in he tiebreaker.

Things went from bad to worse for Pouille as he conceded a break in the second set, but the world number 14 fought back to take us into another tiebreaker. This time it was Pouille who seized control and he went on to earn three mini breaks to take it 7-4.

Unfortunately for Pouille, it seemed like all his effort and energy was piled into getting that second set and Herbert was able to take control of the match. The qualifier break in the fourth game of the match and comfortably went on to serve out the match to love for a place in the second round.

“I got sick on Saturday so I was not able to play doubles yesterday” Pouille told us post match.”

“I was too tired and too weak so I decided to withdraw. Today I tried. I was not 100%, but I decided to go on court and try to win.”

“It was not that far, it was pretty close and I think he played a good match.”
Withdrawing rarely seems to be on the mind of Pouille, who has played through injury and illness in the past.”

“If I woke up this morning with a fever then I may have considered withdrawing.” Pouille added.

“But I was feeling ok to play. Not at full energy, but because I was feeling quite ok I decided to play.”

“If I can play, even at 60 or 70 percent, I try to go on court to win. We play a lot of matches during the season when you are not feeling your best, but you have to go on court.”

WTA Round Up
CoCo Vandeweghe is through to the third round after a 6-2, 4-6, 6-3 victory over Laura Sigemund. The American moves on to face Spain’s Carla Suarez Navarro for a spot in the quarter finals.

In the battle of the Chinese qualifiers, Qiang Wang emerged victorious over Saisai Zheng. The world number 64 came through 6-2, 3-6, 6-2 to set up a match with Svetlana Kuzenstova in the next round.

Kiki Bertens improved to 3-0 against Timea Bacsinszky after a comfortable 6-2, 6-2 victory. The Dutchwoman will face Irina Begu in the third round on Wednesday.

ATP Round Up
Benoit Paire put in an impressive performance to beat the in-form Pablo Carreno Busta 6-3, 6-4. The Frenchman was the more clinical of the two, converting half of his break point opportunities and saving nine of ten faced on his own serve. Paire moves on to face fourth seed and good friend Stan Wawrinka next.

It was not a good day on the whole for the Spanish men. Roberto Bautista Agut and Ivo Karlovic battled for over thee hours without a single break of serve, but in the end the big serving Croatian got the better of the crowd favourite 7-6(4), (9)6-7, 7-6(7). Albert Ramos followed Bautista Agut out of the tournament as he was surprisingly beaten comfortably by Diego Schwartman 6-1, 6-3. In an all Spanish affair, Nico Almagro defeated Tommy Robredo 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to set up a second round clash with Novak Djokovic. Alex Zverev completed the day of misery with a 7-5, 6-3 win over Fernando Verdasco on Manolo Santana stadium.

David Goffin was the first player to book his place in the third round of the mens draw. Despite a tough first set against Florian Mayer, the Belgian took over proceedings in the second and ran away with the match 7-6, 6-0.

Dominic Thiem is also through to the third round after a comfortable 6-3, 6-4 victory over Jared Donaldson. The Austrian took the first set without facing a single break point, but after breaking in the second he was pegged back by his American opponent. The eight seed immediately broke again however and went on to secure a third round match against either Grigor Dimitrov or Ivo Karlovic.

Rafael Nadal’s 10th title in Barcelona was special, as it came on a court that was named after him at the start of the tournament this year. Rafa, 29-5 on the season, and now 10-0 on clay, did the double once again in is career, taking Barcelona after taking Monte Carlo the prior week. Nadal hasn’t dropped a set on clay in nine straight matches and rolled past Rogerio Dutra Silva, Kevin Anderson, Hyeon Chung, Horacio Zeballos, and finalist Dominic Thiem beating Thiem 6-4 6-1. Thiem, playing his second final of 2017, was blitzed by Nadal but still claimed a win over world #1 Andy Murray in the semifinals, and also beat Kyle Edmund, Dan Evans, and Yuichi Sugita on the week.

Lucas Pouille claimed his eighth win in nine matches 6-3 6-1 over qualifier Aljaz Bedene to claim the title in Budapest, his first of 2017, and the second of his career at age 23. Pouille needed three sets against Jiri Vesely in his first match in Hungary, but didn’t look back after that easing past Martin Klizan and Paolo Lorenzi to make the final, before thumping Bedene, who had won a remarkable sixteen straight matches leading into the final. In the end fatigue likely hurt his already limited changes against the talented Frenchman. Bedene beat lucky loser Marius Copil twice in two matches then beat Robin Haase, Ivo Karlovic, and qualifier Laslo Djere without dropping a set.

Brian Baker and Nikola Mektic won the doubles title over Juan Sebastian Cabral and Robert Farah.